Chapter 122

#122 The Witch and the Country of Centaurs (2)

Once upon a time, in a far-off land, even before their grandfather knew his own name…

There were the gentle, kind, powerful, and terrifying goddess Elphaba, along with her servants.

The winged servant, the multi-legged servant, and the strong servant enjoyed a happy life by the goddess’s side.

But one dark night, the multi-legged servant accidentally stepped on the goddess’s foot.

Furious, the goddess shouted,

“Who stepped on my foot?!”

Terrified, the multi-legged servant lied.

“It was the strong servant!”

The winged servant, who was jealous of the strong servant, chimed in.

“That’s right! It was the strong servant!”

Startled, the strong servant replied,

“No! I didn’t do it!”

But Elphaba didn’t believe the strong servant’s words.

In her rage, she took the strong servant’s sturdy armor and weapons and gave them to the multi-legged servant, while she bestowed the mysterious power of magic upon the winged servant.

The multi-legged servant became stronger, and the winged servant became smarter.

The strong servant was left with nothing and was abandoned in the fields.

Even afterwards, the descendants of the multi-legged servant frequently tormented the descendants of the nothing servant, while the winged servant’s descendants blocked Elphaba’s ears from the truth.

The descendants of the nothing servant ended up living a miserable life.

***

Hearing the myths passed down among humans, Dorothea spoke up.

“Wait, so what’s this about the Crow Goddess?”

The skull in the cage responded.

“The goddess Elphaba wields mysterious powers and commands strong servants, so they call her a goddess too!”

“She’s the Crow Goddess because she wears crow feathers!”

“What a mishmash of nonsense.”

Dorothea was flabbergasted.

For her, who suspected that the golden goddess Elphaba was actually the West Witch, the sight of people seriously believing in such a ridiculous myth was no laughing matter.

‘This entire island is bizarre from the get-go.’

It was no big deal that those creatures, half horse and half human, were rampaging about talking about civilization.

After all, there’s no rule that only humans should advance technology and build civilizations.

But it was unnatural that while they developed rapidly, the humans on the same island could barely manage to build huts and wield stone spears.

If the island were truly massive enough that the two races were isolated from one another, that could be understood, but the island wasn’t that big. Just walking around it would take about a week.

With frequent encounters and interactions, one side progressing at a bizarrely fast pace was odd.

‘What’s more, if those so-called civilized horses actually built civilization by themselves, there’s no way I’d be able to understand their speech.’

Everything felt contrived.

It felt like someone had intentionally flipped the positions of speech and humans, and it was unsettling.

If the West Witch had orchestrated this situation deliberately, it would truly be…

“…Really bad taste.”

Dorothea left the hut and moved to the nearby shoreline.

There, following the Crow Goddess’s orders, people were struggling to build a boat.

However, their efforts weren’t yielding much.

Looking at the piles of wood that seemed likely to sink at any moment if they hit a wave, Dorothea sighed.

By the looks of things, it would probably be quicker to borrow the help of those so-called civilized horses.

It was then that the people suddenly became flustered.

The skull, having eavesdropped on their conversation, translated the content.

“*#*#&^##$!”

“Witch! Enemies! The horses are leading an army towards us!”

***

A troop was moving across the plains.

The shining armor, muscular frames, and glistening fur seemed to prove how abundant and powerful they were.

However, their march didn’t appear orderly, nor did it seem strict.

The soldiers chatted casually even while walking on four legs, and their gazes were far from those of warriors awaiting battle.

Even seeing that, their commander, the Red Horse, didn’t scold them.

If this were an actual battle, it’d be one thing, but what was coming next was closer to a hunt or a repossession.

“Still, one young, strong knight was brutally killed. There might be unexpected tricks from the humans, so shouldn’t we be a little cautious?”

At his aide’s words, the Red Horse scoffed.

“What’s there to fear against mere humans? The goddess will protect us, so worry not.”

“However, judging by the state of their armor-”

“Ah.”

“-I beg your pardon.”

The aide lowered his head, looking gloomy, and the Red Horse, seemingly trying to lighten the mood, spoke up.

“You’ve confirmed all the targets, haven’t you?”

“Five in total. None differ significantly from previously identified locations.”

“Tsk, tsk, foolish humans. They have no idea we’re aware of all their nests while committing such heinous acts.”

The Red Horse clicked his tongue.

“One should not be merciful to beasts. If you don’t beat them down until they can’t breathe, they won’t know their place. Now that the so-called environmentalists have zipped their mouths, we must sweep away all the humans or at the very least, make them piss themselves in fear just from looking at us! Understood?!”

“Yes!”

Satisfied with the resounding response, just as the Red Horse was about to quicken the marching pace,

“Commander! Up ahead, there’s a group of humans. But their appearance is rather unusual!”

“Hmm?”

At the aide’s report, the Red Horse turned his gaze ahead.

There were about ten humans, most of whom were wearing rough attire of leather and leaves, which the Red Horse was well familiar with.

It was only natural that human behavior reflected that of beasts, but the Red Horse didn’t like their looks.

They seemed to dare try to mimic civilized horses despite being mere beasts.

However, the outfit of one human female at the forefront was different from the others.

It was far more refined and luxurious, and above all, it felt like ‘technical prowess’ emanated from it.

“Wait, I’d like to talk.”

As the human female spoke fluent ‘civilized horse language,’ a commotion erupted among her group.

The Red Horse shouted,

“Everyone, quiet!”

He moved forward and leveled his sword at the black human.

“What are you, and how can you speak?”

“How I do it? I learned it, obviously.”

“Learned it? A mere human?”

The Red Horse repeated in disbelief.

“More importantly, what are you trying to do leading an army like this?”

“Before anything, let me confirm, are you the representative of the humans?”

The human female frowned, but eventually nodded.

“Well, I guess that’s somewhat accurate.”

The Red Horse turned his head toward his aide.

“What do you think?”

“We must capture her.”

“We came to punish the humans. Is there really a need for that? Just killing them all would prevent any future issues.”

“For the sake of investigating cause and effect. Just looking at her clothing and her fluent speech indicates someone among the urbanites has meddled. If there’s a traitor trying to spread dangerous knowledge to humans, we must capture them to punish them.”

“That’s true.”

The Red Horse nodded vigorously and then spoke to the human female.

“You say you understand speech? Be quiet until this matter is resolved. Do that, and I’ll spare your life.”

“…You expect me to follow after hearing this conversation?”

“Hah. It seems that despite talking, fundamental foolishness can’t be helped.”

The Red Horse sighed softly and then swung his sword.

Not at the one claiming to be the human representative but at the nearby other humans.

‘If I take a head or two and yell at them, they’ll settle down.’

In truth, the Red Horse felt a sense of displeasure since seeing the human female for the first time.

While he could sneer condescendingly at the roughly made weapons or clothing of the other humans, he couldn’t help but feel a sense of overwhelming disgust at the sight of her wearing clothes not far behind the civilized horses’ technology.

Above all, her eyes were off-putting.

While the other humans clutched stone axes or spears, not hiding their fear, the female at the forefront looked back at them with a cold gaze, completely undaunted.

The audacity of a mere human attempting to engage in equal dialogue with civilized horses was a huge crime in itself.

The Red Horse’s sword, possessing formidable strength among civilized horses, aimed straight for the human’s neck—

Kwang!

—But it didn’t succeed.

Seeing the translucent barrier blocking his path, the Red Horse’s eyes widened.

No knowledge he possessed could explain the strange occurrence transpiring before his eyes.

“…Not sword mastery. No, it’s not even just a lack of magical power. After all, it’d be simpler to control the laboratory.”

The voice of the human female echoed in the Red Horse’s ear.

In that moment, the Red Horse couldn’t grasp the emotion piercing his heart.

He had always been the one to give feelings, not to receive them.

The incomprehensible phenomenon continued afterwards.

Suddenly, a cloud of black smoke enveloped the surroundings, and the civilized horses inhaling it began foaming at the mouth in distress.

The civilized horses panicked and tried to distance themselves from the smoke, but skeletal hands emerging from the ground firmly grasped their four ankles, not letting go.

“What, what is this?! What is happening?!”

In the confusion, the witch’s voice resonated in the Red Horse’s ears.

“I don’t particularly care whether you’re right or wrong.”

“Whether the ecosystem or social structure here is odd, that’s none of my business.”

“If you hadn’t recklessly attacked, if you had only spoken, if you had at least stayed quiet until I left this place, it would have been better for you.”

From within the black smoke, blue eyes shone brightly.

The features covered in white skin twisted in a bizarre way.

The Red Horse realized that was a smile from a human.

The human, the female, no, now it only appeared as a monster, was grinning.

They were unaware of the unfortunate news that awaited them.

Here, there was no one else’s gaze to concern themselves with.

The Necromancer’s eyes glimmered.

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